I know, I know, you're sick of hearing about Paris Hilton. So am I, we all are. I'll try to give her as little attention as possible here, OK? Now surely you’ve seen the photographs of the heiress in tears, snapped as she drove away from the courthouse this past Friday:


(©Nick Ut/The Associated Press)

Years from now, this particular image -- in all its washed-out, blown-up, grainy glory -- might serve as an apt reminder of a time when our collective fixation on celebrity had reached critical mass. But if you stop to consider the man who took the picture -- AP photographer Huỳnh Công Út, better known as “Nick” Ut -- the photo transcends its image of wounded ego and becomes a fitting testament to one man's career, the vast spectrum of photojournalism as a whole, and the impact of iconic images.

Some might say there are no coincidences when it comes to such things; that they happen specifically to draw our attention to them. Nick Ut’s snapshot of Paris was taken exactly 35 years to the day from another hopefully-more-famous photograph he took during the Vietnam War, titled The Terror of War.


(©Nick Ut/The Associated Press)

Far more memorable in its composition and its content, this photo of Phan Thi Kim Phúc is usually considered the definitive image of the Vietnam War, and won both Kim Phúc and Nick Ut the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. David Hinckley of the NY Daily News, who interviewed Mr. Ut a few days ago, contrasts the pictures:

The simple juxtaposition of these two photos takes on added weight and meaning knowing that they were taken by the same expressive lens. But what does it say? Ut doesn't offer any answers. Hinckley writes:

Drawing on these two photographs, a lot can be said about the world: the way it's changed over the course of the last generation, or simply the way it's presentation has changed; whether we reflect our media or the other way around. But one thing is for certain: the importance of the image to our culture cannot be underestimated.